"Whether perceived or real, in certain places, the sun shines a little brighter, grass grows a little greener, the air breathes a little more pure, and life lives a little more real. So it was in the Realm of Possibility." -- Crown of the Summerhavens

"Oh, I don't know. Either I'm off my nut, or he is... or you are." -- George Bailey

Hey, I Know You!!

Recent Comments

Monday, February 20, 2006

Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way. It might be more fun a little closer to award night (but the post will live on through then, so you can chime in anytime you want), but here in The Realm, we can go ahead and dish out the Academy Awards beforehand. In the chosen categories below, let us know who you think will win and who you think should win. Any explanation is gravy, but as everyone here knows, nothing tastes better when handing out the award biscuits than a little red-eye. Here we go:

Best Original Screenplay1) “Crash” Screenplay by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco Story by Paul Haggis2) “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov3) “Match Point” Written by Woody Allen4) “The Squid and the Whale” Written by Noah Baumbach5) “Syriana” Written by Stephen Gaghan

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role1) Amy Adams in “Junebug”2) Catherine Keener in “Capote”3) Frances McDormand in “North Country”4) Rachel Weisz in “The Constant Gardener”5) Michelle Williams in “Brokeback Mountain”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role1) George Clooney in “Syriana”2) Matt Dillon in “Crash”3) Paul Giamatti in “Cinderella Man”4) Jake Gyllenhaal in “Brokeback Mountain”5) William Hurt in “A History of Violence”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role1) Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote”2) Terrence Howard in “Hustle & Flow”3) Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”4) Joaquin Phoenix in “Walk the Line”5) David Strathairn in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role1) Judi Dench in “Mrs. Henderson Presents”2) Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica”3) Keira Knightley in “Pride & Prejudice”4) Charlize Theron in “North Country”5) Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line”

Obviously, probably no one in The Realm has seen every single one of the movies listed, but that's okay because from what the word on the street is, neither have the members of the Academy. Just use your best discretion and pass on any category that you don't want to pick for whatever reason. And feel free to cheat in whatever way you need to make some kind of semi-informed prediction. I'll leave my winners in the comments.

5 comments:

I don't know what this says about me, but I have seen every movie in the "Best Achievement in Visual Effects" category, and only one other movie on the list.

I saw Crash.

I know everyone loved it, and I am bright enough to understand why, but I think it was a disservice to humanity. Show me the evil, sure, but don't tell me to give up and suck it up. Don't tell me that the best you will ever get is the cycle starting over again.

It profoundly affected my perception of the movie that I saw it because my daughter was going with a bunch of her friends and their parents. I wanted to see what she was seeing. When I left the movie, all I heard from the kids was nihilistic despair. They wanted to go live in Nigeria, where at least the racism was painted over with hypocrisy.

I don't care if another movie portraying evil brilliantly is ever made.

Yeah, I remember you discussing Crash on Thinklings. That was a good discussion, and you made some great points. In fact, I think I haven't seen it because of a lot of what you said. It's hard to believe in Hollywood they don't have some kind of hopeful ending.

I'm a Matt Dillon fan, as much as one can be I suppose, so I wanted to see it -- and still may. And maybe I'll see something in it you didn't. But I've passed it by many times at the movie rental place now, particularly because my wife doesn't like dark, depressing movies, and from what you had said at Thinklings, it sounded dark and depressing.

As far as movies go, I wish Batman Begins was nominated for more awards. It was my favorite movie of the year by far.

No opinion on my favorite - haven't seen a one of them. But I think Crash will win.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Brokeback Mountain will win.

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

Now, we're talking. Cheering for Narnia or Kong, but I think War of the Worlds will win. And I have to admit that, visually, a lot of the scenes in WOTW was awesome.

Best Achievement in Makeup

Cheering for Narnia, and I think Narnia will win.

Best Achievement in Costume Design

Hm. I'll go out on a limb and say P&P will win, but I haven't seen some of the others. "Memoirs of a Geisha" was nominated for a lot of things, and movies like that usually seem to pick up a few of these type awards when they're not going to win any of the bigger ones.

Best Achievement in Cinematography

OF COURSE I'M HOPING FOR "BATMAN BEGINS", but "Brokeback Mountain" is going to storm through these Academys, IMO. It's a Western, with a lot of beautiful cinematic landscapes, etc. It's "Brokeback Mountain."

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

For "Corpse Bride" but think "Wallace & Gromit" will win.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Funny. I haven't seen one of these. I'll take a stab at Catherine Keener for her role in "40-Year Old Virgin", er, I mean, "Capote."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Being a Matt Dillon fan, and hearing codepoke's rave of his performance (although he HATED the movie), I'll say I'm for Matt. But Jake Gyllenhaal is winning.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Philip Seymor Hoffman is who I'm pulling for (even though I haven't seen the movie), and I think he'll beat Heath Ledger. Have you guys seen him? The guy looks just like Capote. He's winning.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

I'm split between wanting Keira Knightley and Reese Witherspoon. Let's go with Reese, and by golly, I think she's going to win.

Best Achievement in Directing

Don't have a favorite, but Ang Lee has this one sewn up.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Once again, I'm depressed by this year's fare. I'll just say that I'm cheering for "Batman Begins," but since that can't win -- "Brokeback Mountain" will.

There you have it. A pretty much totally uninformed, although very much correct at the same time, opinion on who's winning the Oscars this year. Anyone got a better list? Y'know, a far more informed but a much less right list?